Virtual Machines Thoughts
December 16, 2009
I have always been the type of person that wants to try out new things when they first come out. For example, Windows 7 RC was released a few months back and I replaced Vista on my Lenovo laptop with the release candidate. Normally when I do this, I have a very painful process of reloading my applications and getting my environment setup to support all of our clients. However, this time, I am taking a different approach. I am building virtual machines to support unique client needs.
We have used virtual environments at Woodmark for several years. We have a VMware Server that hosts a number of older server images that we virtualized so we could throw away older hardware. We also have virtualized older PCs so they are available for emergencies and to support older client work that might reappear.
However, the idea of keeping our main machines relatively clean and using virtual environments for all client work, is a new twist on my thinking. It is allowing us to upgrade machines and use the latest and greatest OS, while still being able to support existing clients in the environments that they use.
In addition, Windows 7 improves on the integration of virtual machines with the host machine and the environments seem much faster. I have also been able to move to a 64-bit environment on my laptop, while my Virtual machines are 32-bit environments.
All this will continue to allow me to stay abreast of the latest software while being able to support my existing and even past clients.
